Pilot Project for Kenyan Small-Holders
Soil Association Certification Forestry has received funding from The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes™ (PEFC™) to run a pilot project in Kenya over the next year.
The project is a collaboration between Soil Association Certification Forestry and the Farm Forest Smallholder Producers Association of Kenya (FF SPAK). FF SPAK is an umbrella organisation based in Nairobi, promoting the interests of over 17,000 smallholders. It was registered in 2013, with offices in Nairobi and Nakuru, and works with smallholder farm forestry farmers across the country.
The project has been set up to provide training in sustainable forest management to smallholders across 3 regions of Kenya and is facilitated by Geoffrey Wanyama and Edwin Kamau from FF SPAK. It will also offer the opportunity to establish links to a South African PEFC-supported small forest owners’ project.
Following attendance at the 2-week Soil Association Certification Forestry’s “Excellence in Forest Certification” training course, FF SPAK will conduct sustainable forest management workshops in 3 smallholder communities in South Coast Nyanza and Central Regions of Kenya. This will be followed by support for mentors to extend the training out to the communities. Two of the FF SPAK managers will also be travelling on a fact-finding mission to South Africa as part of the project.
The project will be reviewed and results presented to the Kenyan Forest Service in November 2018. We’ll be seeking further funding to continue this project to expand sustainable forest management training to more smallholder communities across Kenya. FF SPAK is keen to support members to work towards the requirements of forest certification standards and aim for certification in the future.
Future funding will enable Soil Association Certification Forestry to continue to facilitate FF SPAK to deliver training and development in sustainable forest management across Kenya, enabling thousands of smallholders to manage their timber resources sustainably and benefit from improved marketing opportunities that can come from forest certification.